1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of data transfers between electronic components, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for high speed data streaming between electronic components.
2. Art Background
In most computer systems, data transfers between a sending component and a receiving component proceed according to a particular handshake routine or protocol. The handshake routine corresponds to an ordered sequence of events which necessarily takes place whenever data is sent from a sending component to a receiving component within the system. Such a handshake routine typically includes the transfer of certain control signals between the two components. For example, in one such handshake routine, a sending component transmits a control signal indicating the transmission of data, as well as a first piece of data, to the receiving component. When the receiving component receives this first piece of data, it returns an acknowledge signal to the sending component, thereby informing the sending component that it has received the data. In response to the acknowledge signal, the sending component then sends a second piece of data to the receiving component, and the above handshake routine is repeated, for example, until an entire packet of data is sent from the sending component to the receiving component.
It will be appreciated that data transfers taking place in accordance with the above handshake routine, as well as many others in the prior art, necessarily incorporate a certain amount of time delay corresponding to the amount of time it takes for an acknowledge signal to propagate from the receiving component to the sending component. This time delay becomes increasingly significant as the sending component and the receiving component are physically placed farther and farther apart. In addition, within the context of routing data from one processor node to another processor node in a two dimensional mesh of processor nodes, the propagation time associated with an acknowledge signal can be substantial. Of particular concern is the fact that as this propagation delay increases, it begins to impact the bandwidth at which data can be transferred between the two components.
As will be described, the method and apparatus of the present invention provide for high speed data transfers which are substantially unaffected by the aforementioned propagation delay.